Malakit: Malaria prevention and control in mobile and hard-to-reach populations

Overview

The last decade has seen impressive progress in the elimination of malaria in the Guiana Shield region — specifically in the countries of Brazil, Suriname and French Guiana. The average number of cases in Suriname has decreased from 5,800 per year in 2009 to 75 in 2021. Despite this success, mobile and hard-to-reach communities remain cut off from malaria prevention and treatment services and are dependent on self-diagnosis and incorrect or illegal medication. Encouraging proper malaria diagnosis and treatment is crucial to eliminating malaria in the region and preventing the emergence of new drug-resistant strains.

Some remote and hard-to-reach populations in the region remain vulnerable to malaria. These include gold miners who move in and along the border areas of Suriname to illegally mine gold in remote regions of the Amazon rainforest. These populations are wary of seeking medical help due to, among other things, the illicit nature of their work. As a result, they tend to gravitate towards inadequate self-diagnosis and under-the-counter malaria medication, both of which are likely to increase the threat of emerging malaria drug resistance in the region.

In response to this issue and to make the diagnosis of malaria and adherence to treatment as easy as possible, a simple and effective malaria detection and treatment kit, the Malakit, was developed. Early encouraging results from the use of Malakit have prompted new research to generate additional data on enhancing the kit's effectiveness in order to make it available to a larger population.

TDR is supporting the next phase of the Malakit project, whose overall focus will be to:

Improve the understanding of malaria drug resistance;
Address current challenges in distributing Malakit;
Foster discussion on managing residual malaria in target populations in the region.

The Malakit project is based on the premise that increased use of the kit will contribute to the elimination of malaria, both in the region and beyond. This research project will therefore help to inform impactful strategies and materials for controlling malaria in mobile, migrant and hard-to-reach populations worldwide.

News

13 July 2025

News release

Supporting the successful elimination of malaria in Suriname

24 April 2025

News release

From the Amazon to Senegal and India: malaria control among hard-to-reach populations

23 April 2022

News release

Sharing knowledge on controlling and eliminating malaria in remote populations